Political Notebook: With Moore out, few LGBTs seek state office in CA

NEWS

by Matthew S. Bajko

With less than seven months to go before the June 2014 primary
election, there are few LGBT non-incumbent candidates seeking state legislative
seats next year.

The number recently fell to three with the surprise
announcement by Peggy Moore, a lesbian
political consultant based in Oakland, that she was ending her state Assembly
bid. That leaves just two gay men and one bisexual male candidate, all Democrats
in the Bay Area, who have announced bids for state Assembly next year.

The trio is a significant drop from 2012, when 10 out
non-incumbent candidates had sought Assembly seats, including three gay
Republicans. That year two out Assembly members ran for state Senate seats.

At this point no LGBT people have announced bids for
Assembly and Senate seats in southern California, according to LGBT political
insiders. Nor have any out GOPers announced they will seek legislative office
in Sacramento.

And unlike in 2012, none of the current eight members of the
California Legislative LGBT Caucus are running for seats in the Legislature's
other chamber. Rather, two will be termed out of office.

Gay Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) and gay Assembly Speaker John Perez
(D-Los Angeles) will both depart in December next
year after having served six years in the Statehouse's lower chamber.

Perez is running next year to become the state's controller,
becoming the first out person to seek statewide office in California since Tony
Miller sought the secretary of state
position in the mid-1990s after he was appointed to fill the term of March
Fong Eu when she was named an ambassador
in the Clinton administration.

Even if Perez were to win that race, the LGBT legislative caucus
could decline to six members in 2014 if its ranks are not replenished.

It most likely will see gay Campbell Mayor Evan Low
join the caucus as he is considered a frontrunner
in the race for the 28th Assembly District seat now held by his
boss Paul Fong
(D-Cupertino). Should he capture the South Bay seat, Low would be the
first out LGBT state legislator of Asian descent in California.

Looking at harder paths to victory are gay San Francisco
Supervisor David Campos and bisexual
East Bay Municipal Utility District board member Andy Katz
.

Campos is competing against board colleague Supervisor David
Chiu for Ammiano's 17th Assembly District
seat. The race is likely to be one of the more fiercely competed state
legislative contests next year, and should Chiu win, it is unclear if he would
be able to join the LGBT legislative caucus as a straight ally.

Across the bay Katz, a Berkeley resident who is the
government affairs director at Breathe California, is facing a tough fight to
survive the June primary, where the top two vote getters regardless of party
affiliation will advance to the general election in November. He is in a
crowded field of six likely candidates for the 15th Assembly District.

The seat includes portions of Alameda and Contra Costa
counties, stretching from Oakland's Montclair district in the south to Hercules
in the north. The current officeholder, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner
(D-Berkeley), will be termed out next fall.

Katz's candidacy had been overshadowed within LGBT circles
by that of Moore, who worked on President Barack Obama
's re-election campaign. A former chair of the East
Bay Stonewall Democratic Club, Moore had recently won the LGBT political
group's sole endorsement in the race.

But Moore quietly ended her Assembly bid last month, posting
a message on her Facebook campaign page the day before Halloween to announce
her decision.

"Despite the best supporters ever, I am stepping down
from the race for CA District 15 Assemblymember. This was a tough decision, but
this is not a good time for me or my family to take on a race for elected
office," wrote Moore.

The Stonewall club will now meet Tuesday, December 3 to
consider throwing its support behind Katz. This time, rather than the group's
board voting on the endorsement, it will be up to club members to decide.

Katz will need to garner 60 percent of the vote to secure
the endorsement.

"Assembly District 15 lost an opportunity to elect one
of the most dynamic LGBT figures to emerge from the recent elections when Peggy
Moore dropped out," gay Oakland Port Commissioner Michael Colbruno
, who heads the club's political action committee,
told the Bay Area Reporter. "This is a glaring example of
why we need public financing in state races, as only the well-to-do and
prolific fundraisers can run for office. Fortunately, we still have a talented
field of candidates in the race."

There is still time for more out legislative candidates to
emerge. The filing deadline to declare one's candidacy with the secretary of state's
office is March 7.

At least one gay Republican is said to be mulling a run.
West Hollywood resident Brad Torgan is
contemplating a second bid for the 50th Assembly District seat.

In 2012 Torgan sought the seat covering the gay enclave
adjacent to Los Angeles as well as the coastal city of Santa Monica. But his
bid came up short in the June primary, in which he placed fourth.

It remains unclear if any other out Democrats will seek open
seats next year. (It is almost unheard of for a sitting Democratic state
lawmaker to face an intraparty challenge).

With the change in the state's term limits law that allows
newly elected Assembly members the chance to serve 12 years in the lower
chamber before having to step down, it means there could be fewer opportunities
for LGBT non-incumbents to be elected to the statehouse in coming years.

Yet few are voicing worries about the current dearth of LGBT
non-incumbent candidates that have announced 2014 bids.

"I am not overly troubled by our LGBT candidate pool at
this point," said Fremont resident John Cleary
, northern co-chair of the LGBT Caucus of the
California Democratic Party.

Equality California Executive Director John O'Conner
, whose statewide LGBT advocacy group endorses in
state legislative races, was also nonplussed when asked about the lack of LGBT
people seeking state offices.

"We could have eight two years from now in that
election cycle. This one election in and of itself does not make a trend,"
said O'Connor. "If we go two years and four years more with few candidates
I might be scratching my head, but I don't think that will be the case."

Zoe Dunning (Photo: Courtesy Zoe Dunning)

Dunning likely next Alice co-chair

Lesbian retired Naval Commander Zoe Dunning
is set to become the next female co-chair of the
Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club in San Francisco, the Political Notebook
had learned.

The moderate political group staggers the election of its
male and female co-chairs every other year, and the two-year term of current
female co-chair, Martha Knutzen,
expires January 13. Male co-chair Ron Flynn
began his two-year term this past January.

Nominees for female co-chair are due to the club's co-chairs
by Monday, November 18. But several sources in recent weeks have said that
Dunning is the only candidate seeking the position.

Alice members will vote at the January 13 meeting for the
new female co-chair and make up of its board of directors as recommended by the
club's nominations committee.

Dunning, currently co-chair of Alice's political action
committee, did not respond to an interview request Tuesday.

In June 2012 she was elected to a seat on the San Francisco
Democratic County Central Committee and serves as its first vice chair. Dunning
works as the director of change management for Walnut Creek-based consulting
firm Future State.

She made history in 1993 when she came out as a lesbian and
won her discharge case with the military. This year she was a vocal defender of
San Francisco Pride's decision to rescind naming as a parade grand marshal Chelsea
Manning, who was convicted of leaking
classified materials to WikiLeaks and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Dunning's wife, Pam Grey, had served on the San Francisco Pride Committee's board of directors
during the Manning controversy. In September, Grey failed to win re-election to
her board seat.

Tonight (Thursday, November 14) Alice is hosting its annual
Fall Awards event. The 2013 honorees include Reese Aaron Isbell
, a former club co-chair who will receive the
Leadership Award, and Alice's elected Official of the Year
Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu
class=fsl>, who last week ran unopposed to fill out the remaining year of a
four-year term.

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for
Political Notes, the notebook's online companion. This week's column reported
on state Republican legislators' improving scores on an LGBT equality index.